Peridot Mesa

Last Sunday we took another road trip to check out the wild poppy blooms at Peridot Mesa. A fellow CV friend had posted some amazing photos of his trip on March 14th. He must have hit the perfect time as photos from other friends the next weekend did not show the abundance of poppies. We decided to go anyway, even if we had missed the peak season.

Peridot Mesa is on the San Carlos Indian Reservation southeast of Globe. We had been on the same highway when we visited Stafford AZ back in January.

We left the highway and drove a well traveled dirt road for about a mile to reach the top of the hill. Other cars were on top of the hill letting us know our exact destination.

 This group of five had walked the one+ mile from the highway to the top of the mesa. They were heading down to the entrance off the highway. An older motorhome was parked there.

Walking barefoot is what caught our attention. The ground was littered with broken glass and lava rock. I asked the one guy why he did the walk barefoot with all the glass? He replied, "Because we can." OK.

 the colors appealed to me

I don't know the names

if I were to look them up

you'd never see this post!

the flowers of the poppies at Peridot Mesa were

about the size of a quarter

much smaller than the poppies we see in our area

which are about the size of a half-dollar

looking to the northeast from the mesa

this flower had gone to seed

looking to the southwest

more wildflower varieties

we drove down the mesa on the north side

into the valley

only a few poppies were left

saw this good smelling flower while getting a geocache in Globe

don't know its name either

After driving off the mesa into the valley we came to the community of San Carlos. Those photos are the next post.